GEOLOGY. 633 



has only been governed by harmonious laws, which, with- 

 out shocks, without violence, transformed its surface and 

 perfected there slowly and progressively the work of crea- 

 tion. This daring school, which has seated itself upon the 

 Avreck of that of the celebrated naturalist, demands that the 

 name of cataclysm should lie struck out of science. At 

 its head stand Messrs. Lyell, Lartet, and Darwin. 



Modern geologists refer, in support of this new theory, 

 to certain regions of the globe which in our days are inces- 

 santly rising. The ancient Suffcts tell us that many parts of 

 the beach of the Baltic, formerly almost on a level with 

 this sea, and upon which ample troops of seals climbed 

 to play and bask in the sun, were the scenes of great 

 hunts by the Finns, Avho slew them with their arrows. 

 NoAV Von Buch and Lyell have shown that these very 

 places are at the present time raised to a great height 

 above the waves, and are c[uite inaccessible to these ani- 

 mals. "In 800 years," says Humboldt, "the eastern 

 shore of the Scandinavian peninsula has risen perhaps 

 more than 100 metres (about 328 feet), and if this move- 

 ment continue at a uniform rate, in 1200 years pai'ts of 

 the bottom of the sea now covered with fifty fathoms of 

 water, will begin to emerge and become dry land." 



Darwin and many other authors have affirmed that some 

 very extensive regions of South America were formerly the 

 theatre of slow and progressive upheavals, which gave 

 birth to the plains of Patagonia, all over which are scattered 

 recent marine shells, bearing elocpient testimony to the 

 youth of these realms. 



It is to the ancient continent that the loftiest eminences 

 of the globe belong. It was thought that Chimborazo 

 in America rose above every other, but since a more accu- 

 rate study has been made of the Himalaya range, which 



